NHL not seeing damage from lockout as predicted

Winnipeg Jets fans celebrate a third-period goal against the New York Islanders during their NHL hockey game, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Jets won 5-4 in overtime. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Trevor Hagan)

Toronto Maple Leafs fans cheer their team in the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in Washington. The Maple Leafs won 3-2. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Say, did you hear the one about how the NHL would suffer "lasting and permanent" damage from the last lockout? The league would lose tons of fans, buildings would be empty and hockey would be relegated to just above skeet shooting in the national sports hierarchy.

Like the old, funny Hertz TV ads, those and other predictions of doom for the NHL did "not exactly" turn out that way. A few cases in point:

o In Philadelphia, 15,000 people came to see a preseason scrimmage.

o The Pittsburgh Penguins drew all-time high local TV ratings for their first few games, and merchandise at their team stores was purchased at such a rate the team had trouble restocking supplies.

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o After the first week of the lockout-shortened season, according to The Hockey News, NHL arenas were filled at 99.1 percent capacity -- up 6.6 percent from the previous year.

o The first games of the season on NBC -- Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia and Chicago vs. Los Angeles -- drew the highest ratings for a regular-season, non-Winter Classic game since 1999.

It seems clear now: Hockey fans couldn't wait for their sport to come back, and they gave it a big, warm embrace when it did. Without patting myself on the back too much -- it's already pretty sore from other self-congratulatory pats -- I thought all along this would happen. Provided, that is, there still was a season of some kind this year. If it had been all wiped out again? Then I think we would have seen some serious damage.

But we've all become conditioned to expect a work stoppage, or threats of one, in any sport every few years. Yes, this lockout was annoying to hockey fans, but the interest in the game's resumption was intense. On the final night of the lockout -- morning, actually, Jan. 6 -- a crazy number of people remained awake and following every snippet of news on Twitter. When it was over, fans were delirious.

Of course, some problems remain. The Avs had an announced crowd of only 13,776 (76.5 percent capacity) for Wednesday's game against Anaheim, and probably only about 11,000 fans were actually in the building. But those are the kinds of crowds the Avs have drawn a lot in the past few years. They're not a winning team, and nothing sells tickets like a winner.

Fans are down on the Avs right now because of all the injuries to really good players, and because of the ongoing Ryan O'Reilly holdout. Now, that is a situation that could do some lasting damage to this franchise if it doesn't find a way to solve it soon, one way or the other, because fans are furious that a team with a rich owner and $18 million to spend under the salary cap can't find a way to sign its leading scorer from last season. The Avs aren't talking about the matter, which is compounding the problem.

Phoenix remains a complete embarrassment to the NHL too. The Coyotes still don't have their ownership situation settled and still aren't drawing flies. A crowd of only 8,355 elbowed into Jobing.com Arena (sexy name, isn't it?) to see a recent Coyotes game against Columbus.

But every league has its equivalent of the embarrassing family uncle. The larger point is, hockey fans are not as many in number, especially in the United States, as in other major sports, but they are insanely passionate about the game.

Those who predicted all that major damage for the sport during the lockout just didn't get that.